Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 11 2008 | By: Martin

Hi all,

Is this why those known to be poisoned are poisoned?

In my trip to Samburu National Reserve 2 weeks ago, the three day game drive yielding no male lion on scene sent my mind wild with thoughts about who is most lkely to fall victim of poisoning and why. For sometime I could not stop thinking the lionessses were widowed! until, Shivania, a lions expert conducting studies on the big cat in the area enlightened me that there were particular areas you would spot the lions and that they did not stick around the lionesses.

Before this revelation and later, Shivania’s eventual confirmation that the male cats were about and intact, I could not stop thinking that they had been hunted down and killed, another terrible outcome of human-wildlife poisoning. Afterall the surrounding community are overwhelmingly pastoral and such incidences would be favoured in such a set up. But lionesses would fall victim as well, especially since the would be the more ferrocious hunters with the lions known to be lazy beasts who spend long hours sleeping.

But yet again, why not have a homogenous pattern of mortalities in all predators and scavengers? Then there could be another reason, not necessarily applicable to only the lions, but in the entire biodiversity realm. I came up with the following hypotheses:

1. Some members of species characterized by hierarchial feeding behaviour are more vulnerable to getting poisoned than the other members - hierarchy in feeding implies the strongest, biggest or simply the leader gets the bite of the food first. Normally,if the prey is poison-laced, it may be with furadan, may be strychnine or any other lethal poison out there, the leader will most likely take in the fresh, thick layer of poison as he breaks into the prey. this means he/she is most likely to attain the lethal dosage of the poison hence has the highest possibility of succumbing to the poisoning. The other members of the species fight and tussle over the remnants of the poisoned prey may be shaking off,rubbing off with their own bodies or just get small chunks of the meal, lowering their chances of imbibing the poison up to the lethal dosage threshold, hence according them some degree of reduced vulnerability to dying from poisoning. This what I thought had become of the lions of Samburu but fortunate enough it was not the case. Nonetheless, do you also see this tendancy?especially the scientists out there in the field?

2. Members of species of large congregations of predatory/scavenger species without well-defined feeding hierarchy have a lowered chance being killed by poison-laced prey: I have in mind the hyenas and wild dogs. Usually, only one or two baits will be laid out for the predators. In this case these guys feed haphazardly, fighting, snatching from one another and sometimes even ending up losing the prey when stronger cats show up alarmed by their squabbling. Though some degree of hierarchy may be portrayed in the hyenas and wild dogs, with the stronger members having some advantage on the food ration, still this is very diffuse and so poisoning efficiency is to a significant degree lowered.

3. Many species congregations exhibiting species hierarchy of feeding make ’starter’ species more vulnerable to dying from poison-laced bait. The vultures fall in this category. There are 8 East African Vulture Species. Other than 2 species,the Lammergeir and Palm-nut Vulture whose feeding behaviour (specializes on eating bone marrow) and feeding site prefernce (scavenges on shorelines and river banks) respectively alienates them from feeding with the others, the other 6 are more or less dependant or symbiotic when it comes to feeding; the largest-billed, robust Lappet-faced Vulture opens up the carcass, also having priority on the meal. The same role is also excercised by the second runners-up, the Ruppell’s Griffon and White-backed Vultures. These latter two are however more common than the Lappet-faced Vulture. These species that initially open up the carcass are what I earlier referred to as the ’starter’ species. Clearly therefore, these are subject to initial exposure and chances that they will feed on much of the poison and get killed are much higher than their weaker-billed, smaller-sized counterparts, the Egyptian Vultures, the Hooded Vultures and finally the White-headed Vultures. As a matter of fact, of the shocking furadan caused vulture poisoning incidences recorded in Kenya in 2004 and 2005, Ruppell’s Griffons and White-backs were the most victims.

So in short, it seems the more ‘organized’ feeders are at greater risk of getting extirpated through poisoned baits than the ‘disorganized’ feeders. Hierarchy favours posoning. Thus is the sunnary hypothesis.

Thanks for reading and please keep supporting this Wildlife Direct’s stop wildlife poisoning blog for its sustenance in advocating against wildlife poisoning.

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